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In this Saturday August 22, 1998 file photo, Jalaluddin Haqqani, then Taliban Army Supreme Commander, speaks during an interview. — Photo by AP
WASHINGTON: The United States has accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of using the Haqqani Network to wage a “proxy war”, hardening its criticism of Islamabad’s ties with Taliban-allied factions fighting Nato and Afghan troops in Afghanistan.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that in a discussion with Pakistan’s army chief that lasted about four hours, he had pressed Pakistan to break its links with the militant group.
“We covered … the need for the Haqqani Network to disengage, specifically the need for the ISI to disconnect from Haqqani and from this proxy war that they’re fighting,” he said in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Tuesday.
“The ISI has been doing this – working for – supporting proxies for an extended period of time. It is a strategy in the country and I think that strategic approach has to shift in the future.”
Washington blames the Haqqani Network, one of the most feared Taliban-linked groups fighting in Afghanistan, for last week’s attack on the US embassy and other targets in Kabul.
It has in the past suggested that Pakistan’s powerful Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) maintains ties to the network to guarantee itself a stake in any political settlement in Afghanistan when American troops withdraw.
Accusing the ISI of using the Haqqanis to wage a “proxy war” goes further, and risks fuelling tension between Islamabad and Washington, which have been running high since al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a surprise US Navy SEALs raid in Pakistan in May.
“In the past, they have been saying that Pakistan is looking the other way with the Haqqanis, but this term – using them as proxies for Pakistani interests – that is something new,” said Rahimullah Yusufzai, an expert on Afghanistan affairs.
The Haqqani network is perhaps the most divisive issue between Pakistan and the United States.
Washington has repeatedly pressed Pakistan to go after the network, which it believes enjoys sanctuaries in Pakistan’s unruly ethnic Pashtun tribal region of North Waziristan on the Afghan border.
The group’s patriarch, Jalaluddin Haqqani, gained notoriety as an anti-Soviet mujahideen commander in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
His bravery and ability to organise mujahideen fighters won him funding and weapons from US and Pakistani intelligence services and Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan denies that it still has ties to the Haqqanis.
“VERY FRUSTRATED”
The Washington Post reported that US officials had delivered an ultimatum to Islamabad in recent days, warning that if it did not cut ties with the Haqqani Network and help eliminate its leaders then “the United States will act unilaterally”.
“Look at the language, it’s clear the Americans are very frustrated with the Pakistanis. I think they are preparing the ground for more action against the Haqqanis,” Yusufzai said.
He said the United States could step up drone attacks from Afghanistan in North Waziristan or launch long-range attacks on Haqqani hideouts as they did in their helicopter raid on bin Laden in a town just two hours up the road from Islamabad.
Launching a larger military operation would be extremely difficult in the mountainous terrain of North Waziristan and would risk hardening anti-American sentiment in Pakistan.
There has been no public statement suggesting that the United States might itself mount a full-scale offensive against the Haqqanis in North Waziristan, and the official line in background briefings is only that all options are on the table.
A US Military Academy report published in July said the Haqqani Network was believed to be made up of several hundred core members who can draw on a pool of roughly 10,000 to 15,000 fighters.
The group’s leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, told Reuters last week that it no longer had sanctuaries in Pakistan, and instead felt secure inside eastern Afghanistan.
While keeping the pressure on Pakistan over its links to insurgent groups, US officials are also trying to shore up relations with a nuclear-armed country it considers a strategic ally in the fight against militancy.
“What I believe is the relationship with Pakistan is critical,” Mullen said. “We walked away from them in the past and … I think that cut-off has a lot do with where we are.”
Pakistan is in denial. Wake up and clean your act before someone else does it for you.
Actually US wants to put the burden of his defeat in Afghanistan, on Pakistan.
Well said!
If Pakistanis ever had any genuine interests in helping fellow Muslims of Afghanistan and Bangladesh today we will all be best friends. Yet today when India wants to help us you start crying. Our natural friends are Pakistanis but since Pakistanis don’t care one bit about us we will welcome someone else. Atleast India is not two timing us. Good luck to Pakistan. I don’t know how your country became such a basket case.
So many statements in last 2 days from Washington & NONE from Islamabad – what exactly is the Pak. govt. doing
Trying to spin their way out of the mess.
The term "unilateral action" is enough to send shivers down my spine. Looks like this is leading up to open confrontation. Not good for the region at all.
Not good for Pakistan.
The only surprising thing is how long it took the US to say this out loud …
As long as India maintains a dozen consulates in Pakistan's Western flank, Pakistan would want to continue to support these proxies and the Americans will continue to see a Cambodia in Pakistan. Its a vicious cycle unfortunately.
Afghanistan and Pakistan being both muslim countries,why dont they have good relations?Why Afghans like India and dont trust Pakistan?Why dosent Pakistan allow India to send goods to Afghanistan?Why are you upset if India is helping in rebuilding of Afghanistan,like India has recently helped Bangladesh too(USD 750 million).Had Pakistan ever been genuinely interested in Afghanistan,things would have been different.
I will guarantee you the day the the Americans leave Afghanistan; the Haqqanis will become Pakistan's problem. Pakistan would rue the day when it did not eliminate them or, at least, reduce Haqqanis' power when it had a chance with American help.
Proxy wars have a way of boomranging on the masters who created them. Once the Gennie is out of the bottle, it is almost impossible to put it back in.
Pakistan be ware.
As it is Pakistan economy and society is already crumbling with the unpopular war with Taliban. The attacks on Karachi have brought this city to its knees. Its people feel both humiliated & dejected with the attacks. Despair has set in.
The US attack on the Haqqani network will increase the attacks in the cities of Pakistan; Pakistan will suffer more.
I am sure the US understands this but perhaps does not care
You are right. US is guided by its foreign policy goals.
How can an army that cannot fight a war in its own country is fighting a proxy war in another country?